I Am Who I Am Because Of Them
by TechnoGryffin
Summary: Don and Sloan's 17 year old daughter has to write a paper about her family. She talks about where the news family is now.


Don stood at the kitchen island working on dinner. It was a warm fall Sunday in the early part of September. Sloan was out with Mac doing a spa day, Sam was studying with some friends and Alex was playing basketball with some of his friends.

"Hey, Sammy." Don smiled when he saw her 17 year old daughter walking though the door. "Get some studying in between eating pizza and talking about boys?" He teased, chopping some onion up to caramelize.

"Hey Dad." Sam tossed her bag on the kitchen table before grabbing a soda from the fridge. "I'm going to go paint my nails before dinner. I didn't have time with all the talking about boys to do it during studying." She winked before walking deeper into the apartment.

Don called to her to take her bag off the table but she was already gone. He grabbed it but a few papers fell out. One paper floated to the ground with a grade on it, A. He tilted his head when he saw the title, Who I Am by Sammantha Keefer.

_My mother has two Ph.D's, one in economics and one in finance, an award winning reporter with her own primetime show, a Columbia professor, fluent in 3 languages and publishes some of the most read books in her field. _

_My father is a graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, an award winning executive producer, the executive producer of my mother's primetime show and has published books of his own. He has coached my volleyball team to two state titles on top of of it. _

_My Godmother was the President of Atlantis Cable News for 10 years before becoming Senior Vice President of Primetime, because with two kids and the giant kid that is my Godfather she wanted a break, she has three Peabody's, helps run 6 primetime shows, including my mother's and her own show with her husband, and manages to raise two kids as strong willed as both she and my Godfather. Oh and she went to Cambridge. _

Don put the back and the other papers in the living room but tossed that in the master bedroom. He wanted to read it later. He knew Sam would never give it to him to read, being shy in her abilities even if he thought she was as impressive as her mother.

That night after dinner was cleaned up from and tv caught up on Don took the paper from his bedside table. "This feel out of Sam's bag when I moved it." He handed it to his wife.

"What is it?" Sloan read the grade and then the first few lines. "Read this to me while I change for bed?" She asked, her eyes burning a little from her contacts being in as long as they had.

_My mother has two Ph.D's, one in economics and one in finance, an award winning reporter with her own primetime show, a Columbia professor, fluent in 3 languages and publishes some of the most read books in her field. _

_My father is a graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, an award winning executive producer, the executive producer of my mother's primetime show and has published books of his own. He has coached my volleyball team to two state titles on top of of it. _

_My Godmother was the President of Atlantis Cable News for 10 years before becoming Senior Vice President of Primetime, because with two kids and the giant kid that is my Godfather she wanted a break, she has three Peabody's, helps run 6 primetime shows, including my mother's and her own show with her husband, and manages to raise two kids as strong willed as both she and my Godfather. Oh and she went to Cambridge. _

_My Godfather has the highest rated 8 pm primetime show on TV, has a Peabody of his own, works every day to make sure his family and his friends have every chance they need to better themselves. He also coaches two sports at his kid's school and bakes amazing cookies. _

_On top of my parents and God parents I have 8 aunts and uncles, a semi adopted grandmother and her life partner/lawyer, and 5 semi adopted aunts and uncles. _

_So growing up there was no pressure at all. Nope. How could you think there was? _

_When answering the question "Who am I and how has my family shaped that?", that question feels much harder than it should. I am a lot of things: a daughter, a sister, a friend, a girlfriend. It depends on whom you ask, as to whom I am to them. I guess in the strictest sense, I am 5 feet, 8 inches; 130 pounds; a volleyball player; the daughter of Don Keefer and Sloan Sabbith; and the sister of Alexander Thomas Keefer. I am funny sometimes and a perfectionist most of the time. I hate peanuts, but I love peanut butter. I have dark brown hair and the same shade of brown eyes as my mom. I love watching news shows and writing down all the things I question and finding out if they are right or if there is more. I really like to read about history. I am good at math and great at puzzles. I am comfortable on a news set just behind the camera watching as my Uncle Will or my mom or one of the other hosts breaks a story that maybe a 10 year old shouldn't hear about. But those are only fact, and as anyone who has grown up with my parents will tell you, facts without context are meaningless._

_When you grow up with parents named Don Keefer and Sloan Sabbith there are certain things that are a given. You are going to grow up in a newsroom. I also happened to be born in one due to a snow storm and my mother being too stubborn to go out on maternity leave. You're going to grow up quickly, learning about places most people don't know or care about. You're going to get chances other people don't get because of your last name and you have to show that you're worthy on your own. You also get parents that love you and that work hard to give you all the chances in life. _

_Growing up my dad always was there for me. He is the one that would come into my room when I was little and there was going to be a thunderstorm. He would pick me up and carry me into his room and then go get Alex, who hated them as much as I did. He would put us between him and Mom and every time we got scared he was hold us close and make jokes until it was better. He would never yell at us for intruding a good night's sleep no matter how early he had to get up the next day for work. No matter how many hours he worked before he got home he always was there for help with homework and most games and when I just needed my dad. He taught me to question, even him and Mom. To search for truth. To never give up if you know you are right. He taught me how to laugh and how to talk to someone with the earpiece in and not disrupt their flow. _

_He was the fun one too. He was the guy who would lift me up on his shoulders or pick me up and pretend I was a plane. He was the fun one. The one who made sure I had ice cream before dinner and always got a little bit bigger piece of cake than an 8 year old had any right to eat. He might not be everyone's idea for whom my father should be or what he should be, but he was a great father when it mattered and when I needed him._

_Mom was the hard one. It's hard to top someone like my mom. It's hard to know that you might not be as smart as your hero. And she is my hero. She loves books and learning and knowledge. She taught me how to be smart and not be a show off, though we both have a habit to be show offs at times. She also showed me how to take criticism, something I admit I don't do well. She would let me read her notes after a show and ask her questions when all she wanted was a hot bath and a glass of wine, because maybe I'd learn something from our talks. And maybe learning something was always worth it to her. She is also a giant goof ball. Something a lot of people don't see._

_I have her middle name as my first and I have her eyes too. I am, as Dad puts it, a "Mini Sloan". But really is that should a bad thing to be? She's smart and she's proud of her hard work and she's unwilling to compromise the principals she's formed over a lifetime. She's my hero and my best friend. _

_I really have two sets of parents. My biological parents and my Godparents. MacKenzie McHale and Will McAvoy have been in my life just as strongly as my parents have. They have been there for all the birthdays and all the Christmas's and all the moments that I needed them._

_Mac, never Aunt Mac always Mac, is the one that keeps us all talking to each other. She's the one that understands everything that goes on. Her and my mom don't even need to talk anymore, they look at each other and almost read the other's mind. She runs Primetime and EP's the 8 pm hour with Uncle Will. She ran the network for a long time but why run dayside when you can just run primetime and have more fun, that's what she always said. I've spent countless days in Mac's office on her floor drawing or doing homework or playing with my brother and her kids. She was there for me when I figured out I had stage fight a few days before my middle school graduation where I was going to give a speech. She borrowed an earpiece from the seat and talked me though it. She refuses to give up on the people she loves, lucky for Uncle Will. It was decreed from birth I'd marry her son and still somehow we managed to fall for each other. Though Leo likes to say it's because we don't want to have to worry about meeting future inlaws. _

_Speaking of Uncle Will, always Uncle Will never just Will, he's a teddy bear if you'd believe it. He's the one that would always take me out for ice cream when I had a bad day. He doesn't like to take all the credit for his show when he knows how much his staff works hard to make sure he looks good. He's more humble then people see and smarter than people can understand. He's almost 70 now and has more energy than half his staff. He is a hard worker though and he is loyal. And anyone who isn't better learn to be if they are going to be around him. He's always there when I need him even sometimes when I didn't know that I did._

_Like with my parents and God parents I have two families. One is biological and one is made up of the newsfamily. _

_My grandparents all died before I was born. A car crash took my Mom's parents and my Dad's parents died of CO2 poisoning in their sleep only 11 months later. Because of this the only grandmother I've ever really know was Leona Lancing. Once she bought ACN back she made sure that the people there knew how much of a family she saw in them. My parents, Uncle Will and Mac, Maggie and Jim, Gary, Tess, Jenna, Neal and all the rest formed a little family. And as each of them had children we were added to this second family. _

_Leona and her life partner/lawyer Rebecca have always been there when I needed the cool aunt or grandmother. They made sure the family grew and could change and could go off and do everything they dreamed of while still staying connected. Every Christmas Leona rents out a sky lodge and flies the news family out. She is nearly 95 and looks 30 years younger and acts 50 years younger. And Rebecca has been by her side for as long as I can remember. For all life partner and legal issues that come up for her. _

_Then there is Uncle Reece, Leona's son and the current CEO and President of AWM. He's the type of guy who all of us news kids would go to when we couldn't or wouldn't go to our parents. He's paid bail and bought cookies to fund trips, he's picked us up from parties and made sure we all had summer jobs when we could work. He might not be everyones ideal of what a man should be but he's a good guy and he has never not been there when one of us needs him. _

_The very first show I interned at wasn't my mom's. She offered by I didn't want to mess anything up so I turned her down. Instead I went and worked for Maggie and Jim at 7 pm. Yes ACN has a habit of talent and EP's married to each other. It's just one of the bonuses of working for the company. Maggie and Jim helped me learn the details of the ropes I had been learning for years. I produced my first segment for ACN during their show, something I am still very proud of. Jenna, who is the EP for 10 pm incase you were wondering, is like the big sister and cool aunt rolled into one. She is one of the few who married outside the news family and ACN. She married a doctor. Weirdo. And then there is Neal, who have created a whole new way for people to get _

_their digital news. Who taught me how to code and learn the internet. He married some model who know paints. Hard life for him. _

_My biological aunts and uncles are just important to me, even if I don't see them as much as I want. My Uncle Danny, my dad's brother, has a 5 star restaurant and who taught me how to cook. Who always makes sure that ever family meal has enough food to feed the whole of the Air Force. Who almost never takes a day off because he's always thinking about food or cooking for the family or working. He loves what he does and he showed me the simple joy of making a loaf of bread. My Aunt Jamie, Dad's sister, is one of the Undersecretaries of the Treasury. Always fun when my parents do economic news and tap dance around that. Her husband works in another Treasury department. I don't get to see them much but I go to DC once a year and we spend a weekend shopping and going to the museums. _

_On the other side of the family tree, my mom has two brothers and a sister. My Uncle Sebastian is a baseball manager. Go Red Sox. He likes to give me tickets to go see games when he knows I have free weekends. He lets me meet players and talk baseball with him. I text him all the time after and before games. He's a giant kid but I love him. Next is the doctor of the family, Uncle Satchel. He's a big deal cardiothoracic surgeon in London. I don't see him much because of the ocean between us but he really helped me with chemistry last year when Google wouldn't tell me what I was doing wrong. He's married and three kids who all go to Hogwarts even if they deny that's what their private school is called. My Aunt Sawyer and her husband John both work as attorneys in the Solicitor General's office. Not a dull gig by any means. I usually get to see her on my once a year trip to see Aunt Jamie. _

_I should mention my brother, Alex, here too. He and I are a whopping 10 months apart. He has been at my side since I could remember. He was my first playmate and my first partner in crime. He pushes me to do better and I push him in return. We're a team. He wants to follow our Mom as talent and I rather follow our father as a producer. We had an idea for a web news show targeted at teenagers last year. Because of the gift of who our parents are we were able to create it with relatively high production value. 39 weeks in and we're doing a weekly show we're both proud of. Without Alex I wouldn't have the experience of running my own show. Or breaking my arm but that's neither story. _

_When I think about my family I think about a group that is devoted to each other. That will pick on each other over the little things but always comes together on the big stuff. I think of my father cooking while my mom helps us with homework. I think about my Uncle Will letting up sit in the studio while he did his show so he could quiz us for our history test during the breaks and Mac letting us watch the news from the control room on big nights. I think of Maggie and Jim coming back from DC to New York so she can start her own show and getting to go to the premier party because Leona wanted all the "newsbabies" to be there. My family is not normal. But they have made me who I am today. And I can only hope who I am makes them as proud as they make me._

When Don finished Sloan was laying next to him in bed in pajama pants and his college t-shirt. "We had pretty good luck with our kids, didn't we?" She whispered, running her hands though his hair. A little grey at the temples but she thought it made him distinguished.

"We did. Sammy and Alex are just about the best kids with could have had. Maybe Charlie and Leo but Will and Mac's daughter and son have their bullheaded streak." Don wrapped his wife up in his arms.

"I love you Bubba." She kept using that name though the years. Always in private moments like this.

"I love you too Money Honey." Don replied, leaning in for a kiss.


End file.
